So you’re interested in building a social media presence for yourself or your brand, but how do you get started? This process can seem complicated and difficult, especially when you have to do it from scratch. Below are 5 ways to create and sustain social media growth.
1. You ask yourself, “Why am I on social media?
Everyone and their pets are on social media these days, so you assume that just because they are, you must be too. That’s fair, but you have to go deeper. You should ask yourself questions like “Why am I on social media? and “What am I willing to get out of it?”
A good place to start is to set goals and objectives for what you want to achieve and have a clear idea of what content you will be sharing with your audience. Think about the direction you want the platform to go: have SMART goals and then create content to share. This will guide you and give you a goal. You will not post content without a purpose.
2. Make sure you choose the platforms that are right for you
Choosing the right platform is very important because it means you don’t have to waste a lot of time and effort on a platform that won’t bring you any return. You don’t have to be famous on all platforms. If you are in the business industry, the best platforms are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. If you are a photographer, then you will benefit from platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.
If you don’t know where to start, you need to start with Instagram and Facebook as they are the most used social media platforms with over a billion monthly users.
3. Let your audience know why you’re on social media
If you want to succeed with any platform, you need followers, and when you have to start from scratch, that can be a problem. You can get followers and likes on Tiktok and Instagram from Igtok. There are some that allow you to invite your friends to like your page. Make sure your customers know where to find you.
Make sure you have your social media handles on your email campaigns or print because people will know. Link your profiles on your website or use “Follow us!” to log into your physical store or festival.
4. Optimizing your profiles
Optimization may sound like hard work, but it’s easy and necessary if you want to stand out on social media.
It is important to ensure that your page contains the correct information and is consistent; you won’t get much attention if your Facebook profile is half-filled with bad pictures. You want people to recognize you immediately when they see your page. You want people to know you’re a professional and know what you do when they view your profile. There are many online resources to help you learn more about optimizing your site for a specific platform.
5. Follow the algorithm and updates
Facebook was the first platform to implement a wizard-like algorithm that seemed to read your mind and decide what content you wanted to see. Most social media platforms have an algorithm and you need to take full advantage of it.
Facebook will prioritize visually engaging content over less visual content such as text. You can see a huge difference when you add a photo to your status update. If you post two updates, one with a photo and one without, you’ll see a big difference. That’s why when you open your Facebook feed, you’ll see more videos than word status updates.
This is the same with platforms like Twitter, although they use chronological order. Posting at the right time will determine whether your tweet gets 10 or 100 retweets.